Bottle-stopper.



PATENTED FEB. 24, 1903.

H. "CAMPBELL. BOTTLE STOPPER.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 30; 1902.

NO MODEL,

IRE "cams PETERS coJPnurd-umo wAsrqmaTuN. 0,:

NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY CAMPBELL, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR TO KEYSTONE CORK SEAL COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORA- TION OF NEW JERSEY.

BOTTLE;-STOPPER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 721,541, dated February 24, 1903.

Application filed April 30, 1902. Serial No. 105,831. (No model.)

To all whom itmcty concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY CAMPBELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Baltimore city, State of Maryland, have invented new and useful Improvements in Bottle-Stoppers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has for its object to furnish a secure air and gas tight stopper or seal for bottles and other vessels which also serves IO to efiiciently protect the usual metallic cap acid-eaten and weakened to such an extentas to leak and render the contents of the bottle valueless. To obviate this, it has been necessary in the case of all bottling of such goods which are not to be consumed within a short time to abandon the inexpensive cap and seal and return to the former methodof bottling with long corks. This involves much expense, especially in the export trade. It has been attempted to remedy this difficulty by coating the metal caps with shellac, par- 'affin, and various substances or by-placing Y within them disks of paper similarly treated;

3 5 but these remedies have not proved'efficient to protect the cap from the action of acids and leakage, as above described.

By my invention I not only cause the compression and'sealing to be more efficient, but

- 40 I provide an acid-proof protection for the cap at a distance from the latter, yet not in contact with the bottle contents to affect the color or taste of-the latter.

The invention consists, primarily, in a metal cup-shaped cap or crown having therein a plurality of layers or disks of cork, with an interposed layer or disk of other material.

It further consists in the parts and combinations thereof hereinafter set forth.

In order to make the invention more clearly understood, I have shown in the accompanying drawings means for carrying the same into practical effect without limiting my improvements in their useful applications to the particular constructions which for the sake of illustration I have delineated.

In said drawings, Figure 1 shows a vertical central sectional view of the neck of a bottle sealed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view of the stopper and cap, portions of the stopper being broken away. Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the stopper before application. Figs. 4, 5, and 6 are plan views of the upper, intermediate, and

lower disks of the stopper, respectively.

Referring to the drawings, 1 is a bottle, of

which the rounded lip of the mouth is shown at 2. The bottle has near the month an exterior enlargement or head 3. My invention is not limited to any particular form or char- 7o acter of such enlargement, so that it serves as a means to properly secure the cap. The

latter is shown at 4, having a top 5 and a depending flange or other securing means 6.

The latter engages below the enlargement 3, 7 5

being preferably bent into such position by spinning while under downward pressure against the bottle-mouth.

' The stopper proper consists of two or more separate and independent layers or disks 7 8 8o ploy for the layer. or disk 9 a lining of the nature described in Patent No. 691,382 to H. A. Hughes, dated January 21', 1902, or a composition such as is described in Patent No. 0 691,383 to the same patentee, of the same date. The layer or disk 9 is interposed between the cork disks below the disk 7, which keeps it outof contact with the cap, and above the disk 8, which separates it from the contents of the bottle. The two cork disks form elastic and cushioning means between which the disk 9 is strongly compressed when they cap is applied, but yieldingly in such manner as not to be cracked or thinned, so as to allow 10o the passage of gas or liquid. This stopper has animportant function in connection with the application of the cap by pressure to effeet a tight seal. As the capping-tool descendsand compresses the stopper between the top 5 and lip 2 the several cork layers yield laterally in different degree, having in effect a sliding movement on each other, which is promoted by the presence of the interposed smooth-surfaced disk 9. Ultimately the disks are drawn individually to a featheredge against the lip 2, the edge of the lower cork disk 8 extending out a little beyond the edge of the upper disk 7, which, however, is also thinned out at its edge.

The above-described construction of the stopper enables its edge as a whole to be drawn out and down to a thin and dense sealing edge held under great compression.

While a thick cork disk may be broken or cracked by being bulged down in the middle and stretched out at the edge in the process of application of the stopper under heavy pressure, a thin disk may yield more readily without fracture. Also where two distinct disks are employed one may crack through some imperfection while the other remains intact, and the latter will act to occlude the bottle-mouth, while the edges of both disks serve in making the gas-tight seal around the edge of the bottle-mouth. Moreover, when the disk 9 is made of a fabric, as already described, the fibers of such fabric will lie in planes parallel with the faces of the cork disks and the stretching action, due to the bulging down of the stopper as a whole and the drawing out of its edges, will be in the directions of the length of such fabric fibers. The fabric will thus strongly resist disruption and greatly strengthen the cork disks, especially the upper disk, and even if both disks should crack in the middle the fabric, made impervious to liquid, as described, Will keep the stopper tight at the middle, and the heavily-compressed rims of the cork disks will keep the stopper gas-tight at the edge around the bottle-mouth.

I am aware that composite drive-corks have been heretofore proposed, made of a plurality of cork sections cemented together, as

shown in patents to Davison, No. 40,742, dated December 1, 1863, and Nageli, No. 650,021, dated May 22, 1900, and I do not claim the same as my invention; but I believe myself to be the first to combine with such a cap as that shown at 4 a plurality of cork disks capable of separately yielding to pressure and stretching individually at their edges and also the first to combine with such a cap a cork disk within the cap and below the disk on the side thereof next to the bottle a disk of fabric having its fibers in the planes of the stretching and disrupting strains and adapted to resist such disruption and to support the cork disk.

What I claim is 1. In a stopper or seal forbottles, the combination of a plurality of layers or disks of cork, with a loosely-interposed layer or disk of other material, and a metallic cap containing said disks and having its lower part adapted to be bent to engage a bottle and hold said disks compressed 011 the bottlemouth.

2. In a stopper or seal for bottles, the combination of an upper disk of cork, a lower disk of cork, an interposed disk of other material arranged to leave the opposing faces of said cork disks laterally movable one with respect to the other forindependent yielding or stretching as they are applied to the rim of a bottle-mouth, and a metallic cap having its lower part adapted to be bent to engage with a bottle and hold said disks compressed on the bottle-rim.

3. In a stopper or seal for bottles, the combination of a plurality of layers or disks of cork, with a loosely-interposed layer or disk of other material, a bottle having an exterior enlargement or bead, and a metallic cap having its lower part bent to engage beneath said enlargement, said layers being separately compressed on the rim of the bottle-mouth by said cap.

In testimony whereof I ailix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

HENRY CAMPBELL.

Witnesses:

H. N. Low, J. S. BARKER. 

